


Infinity On High

by Leah_Red



Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy, His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, My Chemical Romance
Genre: 2003 was a wild time, Gen, I Took Five Pages of Hand Written Notes For This AU, M/M, Summer of Like AU, Time to Cry AU, daemon AU, yes i named a character after a meme
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-10
Updated: 2017-03-10
Packaged: 2018-10-02 05:04:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10210187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leah_Red/pseuds/Leah_Red
Summary: Pete Wentz and Mikey Way had a very publicized 'friendship' during the Summer of Like in 2005. But how did they get to be such good friends? What did their daemons have to think about all this anyway? And what EXACTLY happened when Mikey kept getting off of FOB's bus early in the morning?





	

2003

“Ella, hold still, dammit.” Joe tried to slip an elastic cloth headband over his daemon's head while she hissed and kept moving side to side.

“NO. I'm not wearing that, I look STUPID,” his daemon declared. Elairha snapped her jaws, snagging her teeth on the fabric of the hearing protection. No one really knew why Ella ended up as a komodo dragon, least of all Joe. She did use that form to the fullest, though, that was for sure. 

Pete laughed as he watched, holding Bohedira in his arms. “Comfy?” he asked.

“WHAT?” she yelled. Bode already had on her protective headphones, hiding her squashed down Scottish fold ears. They were light gray, matching her pastel calico fur.

“Don't worry about it.” Pete scratched under her chin til she started purring. That seemed to drop the subject.

“Are you gonna put that on so we can go inside or what?” Saphrin, Chris' giant African land snail daemon, managed to put out an aura of impatience without even moving on her perch at his shoulder.

Pete looked past the open door of the Fireside Bowl and to the crowded space inside while his friends and their daemons continued to argue as he tried to get a glimpse of the band playing inside. “My Chemical Romance” the fliers said, and so far everybody said they were pretty okay. Everybody inside was having a good time at least.

Finally Pete lost his patience and went inside, waving at the doorman as he passed. He really wanted to see these guys play. When they got close to the cordoned off section for daemons, Bode jumped out out Pete's arms so he could push into the crowd and get closer to the 'stage'. It wasn't much more than plywood on cinder blocks.

The lead singer, Gerald or Gerard or something, was screaming into the mic and everybody at the front of the crowd was screaming right back. One of the guitarists looked like he was fighting somebody that wasn't on stage, slinging around his guitar and looking like he might fall over any second. Pete grinned, pushing through some more of the crowd to get even closer. Definitely reminded him of himself.

The band took a breather that lasted all of two seconds. In that short time, before the singer started screaming again, Pete's eyes were drawn to the bassist. He wobbled a little on his long legs, like he might not be used to being that tall yet. Pete pretended to mouth some of the words as he watched him play with clumsy fingers. How did those black and white glasses not fall off his nose? he thought to himself.

Pete could feel Bode getting squished between other daemons the same way he was mashed between other humans. He was so glad she didn't mind the close contact of other daemons, and if he wasn't totally mistaken, she had just as much fun as he did in crowds.

Her good vibes didn't stay on his mind for long. The bassist looked over and met eyes with him for a split second, long enough for Pete to realize that he had the most amazing brown eyes he'd ever seen. That was the only chance he got to lock eyes with him though. For the rest of the short show, the leggy bassist had his eyes on the floor or only briefly looking up into the crowd.

Their set finally ended, and the band quickly made their way to a reserved section just off stage to reunite with their daemons. Pete saw a funky long legged wolf looking animal nuzzle up close to the bassist. Her legs looked as long as his, and he bit his bottom lip to keep from smiling too much.

Bode was waiting for him at the edge of the daemon section and he quickly scooped her up and helped take off the headphones she was wearing. “What'd you think?” he said absentmindedly.

“Of the band or your new crush?” she asked flatly. Pete had already looked away and was watching the long-legged bassist pack his instrument in to a case.

“What was that?” Pete wasn't paying attention to her until she bit him on the hand. “Ow! What the fuck, Bode?” He glared at her.

“Don't do anything stupid. I can tell you're about to do something stupid. Don't do it.” Bode had on her 'parent' voice but Pete had learned long ago to totally ignore that tone.

By the time he made it over to the band they were helping their drummer put up his kit while his otter daemon ran around them in circles checking to make sure everything was secured.

Joe showed up just a few seconds later, carrying Ella in his arms like a big lizardy log. She had a smug look on her face and Joe looked out of breath. Komodo dragons weren't light. Chris wasn't much further behind, placing Saphrin back on his shoulder after carrying her through the crowd.

“Geez, you didn't have to ditch us at the door,” Joe panted, setting Ella down at his feet. “Did you introduce yourself yet?” 

“Nah, come on.” Pete carried Bode on over. The first person to notice them was a little brown bird daemon that kept popping in and out of one the guitar players crazy curly hair. She chirped in his ear, making him look up.

“Oh hey.” Curly had a surprisingly high voice. He got the other guitarist's attention, and his little bird daemon flitted down to sit on the coyote daemon that was sitting next to him. “I've seen you guys before.” The two of them approached while the singer and the cute bassist finished up dragging out the drum kit so another band could set up after them. 

“You're from Fall Out Boy, right? We heard a lot about you.” Curly held out his hand to shake with Pete's. “I'm Ray. Windmill right here is Frank.” 

“What's up.” Frank grinned and nodded at them.

Pete shook hands with Ray and let Bode drop to the floor and touch noses with Frank's daemon. “You guys had a pretty rad show. Chris here told us you were gonna be in town and said we should come check you out.” 

Chris sorta shrugged. “I see it was a good idea.”

Ray looked a little bashful, and his daemon flew up to sit on his shoulder and hide behind his hair. “Glad you had a good time then.”

Pete was gonna try to say something to Frank, maybe ask him who he fighting up on stage, when the singer and the bassist came back with plastic cups full of beer in their hands. Joe struck up a conversation with Frank and Joe, and Pete found away to scoot around them while they were distracted and trying to sell shitty t-shirts to the people in the crowd.

“Hey.” Pete stuck his hands in his pockets, making aggressive eye contact with his new friend. Bode wrapped around his leg and looked up at the weird fox wolf standing next to the bassist.

“Hi.” The blond bassist shuffled his feet and leaned against his daemon. He wasn't as confident looking back at Pete, mostly keeping his gaze skirting across the floor.

“So. I'm Pete. Me and my friend Joe are in a band that's played here before.”

“I'm Mikey.” He took a big gulp of his beer. “What's the band? Not like I'll have heard of it before.” Mikey smirked just a little, finally meeting Pete's eyes for more than a glance.

Pete got a little riled up at that, and couldn't figure out why. Bode's fur stood up on her back and she stretched up on her toes.

Mikey's daemon tossed her head and looked down at Bode dismissively. “Don't even think of starting something, punk,” she said in a husky voice.

“We're from Fall Out Boy. Probably the best band to come out of Chicago,” Pete replied.

“Big words for such a short dude,” Mikey said, laughing into his cup. He pushed his hand through his spiky blond hair, making it stand up even crazier than it was before.

“I gotta overcompensate for my height, right?” Pete grinned up at him.

Mikey scoffed, and his daemon backed off from Bode just a little bit. “All right fine. I have heard of Fall Out Boy. Kinda cool to meet you.”

“Only kinda?” Pete finally held out his hand to Mikey.

“I might bump it up to actual cool if you guys turn out to get famous,” Mikey said as they shook hands.

Pete laughed and hung on to his hand probably a second too long. Mikey's hand was warm and his fingers were long and pretty. Pete silently gulped and hoped the blush rising to his cheeks would be hidden by his tan skin. When was the last time he thought of someone as pretty?

“So you guys gonna be in Chicago very long?” Pete asked, hoping to get some sort of actual conversation going on before he did something really stupid.

“Couldn't tell you. Ray or Otter usually drives and as long as I show up I don't really care where we go.” Mikey shrugged.

Pete took a quick glance down at Mikey's pocket- that was what he told himself anyway- looking for the tell-tale bulge of a cellphone. “Gimme your number and you can hit me up if you're ever in Chicago again.”

Mikey obviously thought it for a second before pulling his phone out of his pocket. The two of them exchanged numbers, and Pete sent him a text to make sure it went through.

A deer daemon with crazy vampire fangs trotted up to them before Pete could ask anything else. “Yo Mikey, we're getting out of here. All the left over shirts are in the van.”

Pete was a little startled to hear a masculine voice come from the deer. He hadn't seen any girls in the band.

“All right, okay. Tell Gerard I'll be out to the van in a minute.” Mikey shooed off the deer with a dismissive wave and then gave Pete an apologetic look. “I gotta split.”

“Was that- that was the singer's daemon, right?” Pete couldn't stop himself from asking about it.

Mikey immediately bristled, and so did his daemon. “Yeah, his daemon's male, too. You gonna start shit about it?”

“No way, just kinda- different. That's all.” Pete hoped he didn't royally fucked up what little friendship they had built up already.

Mikey's wolfy daemon bumped her head against his hip. “Chill. He didn't mean anything by it.”

“Yeah.” Mikey took a breath and tried to calm down a little. “Yeah. Don't worry, Pete, I'll let you know if we're ever in Chicago again.” He gave him one last look and a bit of a shy smile before turning away and heading towards his waiting band. 

Pete picked up Bode again, and she clawed up his chest to sit precariously on his shoulder. “Dude, he was wasted.”

“Yeah and really hot,” Pete whispered back, mostly to himself.

By the time he got back with Chris and Joe, Joe had a t-shirt that he probably overpaid for and Chris was looking over at Pete with a raised eyebrow.

“Have fun over there?” Chris asked.

“Mhm. Definitely.” Pete grinned back, and Bode fwapped him in the side of the head with her tail.

“Come on, let's get out of here before the next band starts. I don't want to have to carry Ella out again.” Joe glared down at his daemon, who just flicked her tongue out at him.

“You know I would love nothing more,” she said sweetly.

Pete finally got them going by practically pushing Joe out the door. Bode did her part and sat on Ella's back while they walked outside.

Later that night, Pete lounged on his bed and stared at his phone. Bode sat on his chest and looked at him in the way that only cats can, unblinking and judging.

“I can tell what you're thinking about. Don't text him,” she said, pawing at the phone in his hands.

“Ugh. I just wanna make sure he knows I'm sorry for making a scene about his brother's daemon.” Pete had done some research when he got home. Turned out that the lead singer in My Chemical Romance was Mikey's brother. That might explain why it was such a touchy subject with Mikey.

“At least wait til it's not three in the morning. You dingus.” Bode stood up on his chest and stretched, and padded over to curl up next to his head. “I'm tired. We should sleep.”

“But what if I wait til it's four in the morning?” Pete took his shirt off and turned his phone off before getting in the covers. “That's better right?” He reached over and turned off the light next to his bed.

“Whatever you say, Pete.” Bode nestled into the bed. 

Pete got comfortable and rested his hand on top of Bohedira's soft fur. He definitely wasn't going to forget about Mikey any time soon.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you Deejaymil for letting me bug you SO MUCH AND SO MANY TIMES for advice on daemon logistics. Go check out their stuff!!!


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